Distributed antenna systems consist of a base station (also known as a Radio Element Control or a Baseband Unit) and one or more remote transceivers (also known as Radio Elements or Remote Radio Heads). These components provide endpoints with wireless network access. To aid the distributed antenna system in distinguishing between the various wireless transmissions to and from the various endpoints, each endpoint may have one or more unique subcarriers assigned thereto.
Within a distributed antenna system, the remote transceivers are distributed around different geographic locations while being connected via a wired connection (e.g., optical fiber) to the base station. Wile there may be multiple remote transceivers, from the perspective of an endpoint there is only one entity, the base station. That is, each remote transceiver transmits essentially the same core data, and the endpoint combines multiple signals from multiple remote transceivers into a single communication.
The base station communicates with the remote transceivers using, for example, the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) standard. The CPRI standard allows in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) data to be transmitted from the base station to the remote transceivers. The remote transceivers use the I/Q data to form the transmissions that are sent to any endpoints connected thereto. The remote transceivers are also able to communicate with the base station using the CPRI standard. This allows the remote transceivers to relay data received from the endpoints and to communicate control information, such as signal quality, to the base station.